Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere, a Hulu original series, based on the book by the same name, and written by Celeste Ng, premiered in April of 2020. The series stars Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon, who also produced the show with her company, Hello Sunshine. The series takes a deep dive into what seems to be a picturesque, perfect little town, but of course, nothing is ever as it seems.
The town of Shaker Heights, Ohio wants everyone who enters to believe it's perfect, but really it is packed full of secrets. This town has a strict set of rules and guidelines in place to ensure everyone's safety and comfort, but the story examines what happens when rules don't work, or worse when rules are broken.
Gone Girl
Gone Girl is another feature, based on a book by the same name and written by a female author. This thriller tells the story of Amy, who sets up an elaborate plot to leave her husband and frame him for her murder after discovering he's been having an affair with a student.
It has similar to the themes in Little Fires Everywhere in that examines just how far we're capable of going to make everything appear perfect on the outside when really, there are plenty of secrets to uncover.
Girl On The Train
Girl on the Train, starring the incredibly talented Emily Blunt, tells the story of a woman struggling with addiction and how her life has fallen apart at the hands of it. This mystery thriller will leave viewers on the edge of their seats and guessing until the very end.
For fans of Little Fires Everywhere who watched each episode week after week, wondering what would happen next and developing their own theories in the process, this feature is a must-see.
Thelma And Louise
One of the other main reasons fans love Little Fires Everywhere is because of the chemistry between Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington and the way these actors are able to share the screen and deliver brilliant performances, feeding off of each other the entire time.
Strong, female leads are becoming more and more valuable in Hollywood, but it all started with films like Thelma and Louise, which proved there is a massive fan base for female-led productions.
Fear
Reese Witherspoon has been a household name for years, after having found success as a child actress. Witherspoon fans who love seeing her in darker films and fans who love to look back on Reese's earlier work should check out Fear, which also stars Mark Wahlberg.
Witherspoon plays Nicole who falls for Wahlberg's David. David seems like the perfect boyfriend at first, but quickly turns and Nicole's fairytale romance becomes a nightmare she can't wake up from.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
This is another feature film where nothing is as it seems. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie star in this action, a comedy feature film about a couple who are secretly killers assassins. Mr. and Mrs. Smith hide their secret status from one another, but it comes to light when they are assigned by their respective agencies to kill each other.
Like viewers learn watching Little Fires Everywhere, keeping secrets from your spouse is never a good idea and could only make matters worse.
The Skulls
The setting of Little Fires Everywhere is the quaint and upper-middle-class town of Shaker Heights. This town was designed to be utopian-like in that the community follows a certain set of rules to ensure that everyone is happy and the town itself is pristine. As many films and shows will tell us, rules like this are never good and only cause people to keep secrets.
The '90s thriller, The Skulls, explores the inner working of secret societies and just how far people will go to protect their secrets. It also stars Joshua Jackson who plays Bill Richmond, husband to Witherspoon's Elena.
Secrets And Lies
Secrets and Lies is a critically acclaimed, late 90's British film that tells the story of an adopted woman learning who her birth parents are, eventually uncovering an incredible amount of secrets in her dysfunctional, biological family.
This film and Little Fires Everywhere both examine the theme of adoption. At the core of the story, both present questions to their audience about the fairness of the adoption process and how easy it is to bury someone's past through it all.
Pleasantville
The town of Shaker Heights sets out to be the most pristine and perfect place to live. When newcomers Mia and Pearl first arrive to the town, they take note of just how perfect everything and everyone seems to be, like a 1950's television series.
The film Pleasantville, also starring Reese Witherspoon, takes this same idea and gives it a twist by dropping two modern teenagers into a 50's television show's fictional town, which actually turns out to be a pretty bad idea.
To Kill A Mockingbird
Female authors have been writing incredible novels for decades and many of those works get turned into films that have gone on to become classics in film history.
One of those authors is Harper Lee who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The book was later turned into a film by the same name starring Gregory Peck. Like Little Fires Everywhere, this book and the movie that followed take a hard look at society and the racial issues that have plagued us for centuries.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
This feature film, starring Melissa McCarthy, is based on a biographical book by Lee Israel, a female writer, who, in an effort to reignite her failing career, forged letters from deceased authors and playwrights and sold them. This dramatic film is powerful in its honesty and McCarthy leads with an incredible performance.
Fans who appreciate Little Fires Everywhere for its predominately female production and raw honesty will love this film, which earned McCarthy an Academy Award nomination.